


Too Much Alike

by Marks



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Bad at Compliments, Birds of a Feather Zine, Enemies to Friends, Gen, stuck together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 21:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17251988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marks/pseuds/Marks
Summary: Kageyama and Tsukishima get stuck alone together while watching a professional volleyball game, and it sucks. Okay, well, maybe it's not that bad. Okay, fine. Maybe it's sort of great.





	Too Much Alike

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the Birds of a Feather zine (@KarasunoZine on Twitter), a gen zine featuring the five Karasuno first-years, which turned out wonderfully. So much terrific art and fic! This fic was a blast to write and having my story included in the zine was a great experience!
> 
> P.S. - Kageyama and Tsukishima are complete losers. Never forget that.

Kageyama checked the clock on his phone for the fifth time in the last minute. He wasn’t really an anxious person, but they were going to see the Japanese national volleyball team play an exhibition match and the train was leaving soon. So far, he was the only one at the station. Yachi couldn’t make it because she was helping at her mother’s office, but that didn’t explain where Hinata, Yamaguchi, and Tsukishima were.

Then, Kageyama’s phone buzzed in his pocket. _Sorry, everyone!_ Hinata’s group message read. _I must have eaten something gross!! I’ve been sick all night and can’t watch the match!!!_ This was followed by about a hundred sick face emojis and prayer hands.

“Dumbass,” Kageyama muttered under his breath. Then, he realized this meant he was hanging out all alone with Yamaguchi and Tsukishima. He didn’t think they’d ever done that before, but it probably wouldn’t be too bad if Yamaguchi was around to keep that blond jerkface in line.

Speaking of blond jerkfaces, Tsukishima appeared next to Kageyama on the platform. “The lonely king awaits his royal coach,” he said, instead of something normal, like hello.

Kageyama scowled. “Where’s Yamaguchi?”

“Running late. He told me to catch this train, and he’d meet us at the arena.” That kind of sucked, but the train arrived a few minutes later and it was too crowded to sit together, which suited both of them just fine. Kageyama spent most of the ride playing a dragon puzzle game that he kind of sucked at, but it was something to do whenever he couldn’t play volleyball.

“You play that?” Tsukishima asked, suddenly leaning over the back of Kageyama’s seat and making him jump out of his skin. Tsukishima laughed. “And you’re terrible. If you give me your member number later, I’ll give you some items to level you up.”

Kageyama narrowed his eyes, but Tsukishima seemed sincere. “Okay,” he agreed.

“Anyway, our stop’s next. Get up.”

“Okay,” said Kageyama again. When the train doors opened, Tsukishima walked out confidently and let Kageyama trail behind him without even turning around to look. Kageyama wasn’t always good with directions, but he was good at following someone else’s lead; in the last two years, the team had been to enough tournaments that Tsukishima already knew that.

Soon enough, the arena loomed in front of them, huge and impressive, but right before they headed inside, Tsukishima stopped short, making Kageyama crash into his back. He sent a withering look over his shoulder and dug his phone out of his jeans.

“Damn it,” Tsukishima mumbled.

“What?”

Kageyama felt instinctively that he was about to get bad news, and his instincts were usually very good.

“Yamaguchi’s train got cancelled. There’s an emergency on the line, and he doesn’t know when he’ll get here,” Tsukishima said. He sighed and reached under his glasses to rub at his eyes. “I knew I should have shoved him out the door today.” Kageyama wrinkled his nose. Alone with Tsukishima for maybe the whole day — was this better or worse than the time he’d gotten a root canal?

Well, the root canal didn’t have volleyball. That was something in Tsukishima’s favor, at least.

“Come on,” Kageyama said eventually, grabbing Tsukishima by the wrist and pulling him inside. Tsukishima shook himself free, but kept following Kageyama as he asked ushers for directions until they found their seats. They left a hopeful space for Yamaguchi in between them and settled down.

They didn’t talk to each other, just like the train; Tsukishima played on his phone while Kageyama checked out the court. It was huge! The facility was top-notch and watching the national team warm up at such a high level got Kageyama’s heart racing. It didn’t matter that he was alone with the world’s tallest sour lemon when there was _volleyball_.

The national team’s setter leaned back to toss to their ace, and Kageyama leaned so far forward that he almost fell out of his chair. It was so fast and so cool that he was determined to learn how to do it himself, then surprise Hinata with it when he least suspected it. Kageyama sat back again, satisfied with his big plans. Then, his stomach growled loudly enough that the two people sitting in front of them turned around to see what the commotion was. That was Tsukishima’s cue to almost fall out of _his_ chair.

“What the hell?” asked Tsukishima. “When did you last eat, a week ago?”

Kageyama glared. “I had breakfast.” Breakfast, though, was now a distant memory and his stomach reminded him of that again, loudly.

“That’s hilarious,” Tsukishima said, covering his mouth as he laughed harder. “You’ll scare the players.”

Was that even possible? Kageyama’s eyes widened at ruining the national team’s plays because he hadn’t had lunch yet; he’d feel terrible if that were the case.

Tsukishima sighed and sat back in his chair. “God, I was kidding. Go eat something, dummy.”

“You’re the dummy!” Kageyama shot back. He exhaled through his nose and looked away from Tsukishima’s terrible face. “I only have enough money for the train ride back.”

“Annoying,” Tsukishima mumbled and pushed himself out of his chair with effort. “Come on.”

Kageyama eyed Tsukishima suspiciously. “Where?”

“I have money and listening to your stomach for the rest of the day is going to annoy the crap out of me. It’s like you installed a sound system in there.” Tsukishima offered a hand up; Kageyama stared at it for long enough that he took it back and sighed huffily. “Get up,” Tsukishima said, and Kageyama did, following out to the concession stands. He let Tsukishima buy him a burger and fries, then waited while Tsukishima selected a strawberry kakigori for himself.

“Why are you being so nice?” Kageyama said suspiciously as they walked down the arena stairs back to their seats. “You’re not dying or anything, are you? We need you for volleyball season.”

“Why, King, I didn’t know you cared.” They sat again and Tsukishima sighed. “You’re angry enough normally without the aid of hunger. Plus, if you’re stuffing your face, I don’t have to hear you talk.”

Kageyama opened his mouth to protest when Tsukishima leaned over and grabbed a handful of fries and stuffed most of them directly into Kageyama’s mouth, then sat back, laughing, as he ate the rest himself. At that, Kageyama tried to stay angry, but the fries were pretty great and the players were lining up for the match’s start, and it just didn’t work out.

Later. He’d be mad later.

When the match started up, Kageyama was so focused on his food and the match that he barely remembered Tsukishima was even there. Then, the national team lost an easy point against their invited guests and Tsukishima clicked his tongue loudly.

“Their defense is full of holes,” said Tsukishima and Kageyama reluctantly nodded. The team’s coach apparently agreed, calling for a time out and swapping one of their blockers. This was the right call, as far as Kageyama was concerned. He could see Tsukishima leaning forward in his seat once the time out ended, so he probably thought so, too.

Kageyama kept an eye on as many of the players as he could, but he mostly focused on the two setters. The national team’s setter was as impressive as he had been during the warm up, better even, and Kageyama found himself clenching his fists as he watched. Everyone was always telling Kageyama how fast and precise his sets were, but he still had so far to go, so much to work on. He’d just have to practice more and harder and get better and better and –

“You could do that,” Tsukishima said, shaking Kageyama out of his thoughts. 

“What?”

Tsukishima gestured toward the court. “That, just now. Their setter barely looked or moved before the toss, and it could have gone to any of the attackers.” 

“You think I could do that?” Kageyama asked.

“You do that already,” Tsukishima said. “It’s why you’re so annoying. Well, one reason.”

Kageyama stared at Tsukishima, baffled. That was almost a compliment, at least as close as Tsukishima ever got when it came to him, and Kageyama couldn’t just let him have the upper hand. Kageyama pulled his eyebrows together, deep in thought, as Tsukishima turned toward him.

“What–” Tsukishima began.

“YOU HAVE A LOT OF GOOD IDEAS!” Kageyama shouted.

This time, every person in all the seats surrounding them turned to stare at Kageyama. Tsukishima looked at him for a beat, wide-eyed, with his jaw hanging open a little. Then, the jerk let out a howl of laughter, his whole body shaking from it.

Kageyama growled and hopped into Yamaguchi’s seat so he could shove the last spoonful of kakigori into Tsukishima’s mouth, silencing him with surprise.

“Now we’re even,” Kageyama mumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t move back into his old seat.

In the middle of the second set, Yamaguchi finally showed up, apologetic and still a little out of breath. He sat down next to Kageyama and looked over at the two of them, who’d spent the time exchanging commentary in relative peace.

“You haven’t killed each other,” Yamaguchi said and laughed. “I admit, I was a little worried.”

Tsukishima shrugged, his shoulder brushing against Kageyama’s. “It hasn’t been too horrible,” he admitted.

Kageyama realized with some shock that was true for him, too. Did this mean Tsukishima and he weren’t just teammates now, but friends, too?

Maybe. Probably?

And Kageyama decided that was all right.


End file.
